Posts tagged “Sharon Carter”

The regular ongoing Captain America series, which has been damned amazing since Brubaker came on board with # 1 a few years back has become Captain America & Bucky, and will retain its original numbering, focusing on the pair of heroes and their numerous adventures under the watchful eye of a new creative team. A brand new Captain America # 1 hit stands last Wednesday, again under the direction of Ed Brubaker with art by Steve McNiven, he of Civil War and Old Man Logan fame. It marks a new chapter for the Captain America saga. One that builds off of Brubaker’s already elaborate work and provides a new jumping-on point for new readers as well. It’s a strategy that has worked well for other books in the past, with Invincible Iron Man under Fraction and The Mighty Thor under…Fraction again.

The book begins in a cemetery where Cap is mourning the loss of an old friend. If you’ve been reading Fear Itself, you’re almost immediately convinced that it’s (**spoiler alert**) the recently deceased Bucky Barnes. But that’s not the case at all. In fact this introductory issue doesn’t address Bucky at all. Brubaker instead hits the ground running and plunges us into the story that, in a manner consistent with the rest of his run, is tied heavily to Steve’s adventures in World War II. The interplay between the past and the present is a defining element of Brubaker’s run. The Winter Soldier storyline would have had no impact if Ed and company hadn’t been able to skillfully craft the narrative in such a way that all the pieces fit like a jigsaw puzzle. Steve remarks that he sometimes still has trouble reconciling the fact that even after all these years he is still a man out of time. He’s displaced. Despite being the representation of America itself, the modern landscape is never fully going to be his home. While some writers take this and run with it in precisely the wrong direction, as was the case with Civil War Frontline, Brubaker’s Steve Rogers is a character who always tries to retain the elements of himself that shine brightest while trying to evolve to fit into a world that, quite frankly, does not deserve a hero of his caliber.

Some fans will be put off by the fact that the manner in which Steve becomes Captain America once again is not immediately addressed, but this is just as much a book for new converts from the film as it is for longtime fans. Brubaker is not one to ignore those elements, but they will have to be introduced organically over time so that everyone feels at ease. This is a very classically written book in that regard. Half of the fun will be having answers revealed over time as it is appropriate. Brubaker’s crime-fiction background shows heavily in his writing here. Little snippets surface to make the big picture appear clearly but they don’t come at you on every panel. Brubaker is a master of the slow burn, if his prior work on the title has shown us anything. I would expect that tradition to carry over here.

As for McNiven’s art, it’s as clean and crisp as ever and I can only hope that he’s got the issues finished because I would weep at the thought of a fill-in artist. He draws Cap with amazing skill and his artwork matches the tone of the book perfectly. You couldn’t ask for a better artist, though many in his caliber have worked with Brubaker on Cap in the past and I’m hoping that Steve Epting and Michael Lark get their turns on the new title as well. Rotate them all through the different arcs and you’d have as close to a perfect Captain America title as could be managed.

I strongly advise picking this up. Captain America is and has been one of Marvel’s best properties for quite some time now and this issue seems to indicate that’s not changing anytime soon.

So, uh…is Steve Rogers poppin’ a squat to make some poos there or am I totally misreading that image?

Captain America – Reborn, the mini-series that brought Steve Rogers back to life in the core Marvel universe which saw significant delays and even had to tack on an additional issue to tell the full story, finally finished up a few weeks back and I’ll admit that while I picked up the issues when they hit stands, due to the nature of the delays and whatnot I never actually read the story.

Now that the arc is complete and I don’t have to worry about Bryan Hitch ever getting the art done, I sat down to read the story in its entirety and give it an honest shake. Does it measure up to the hype surrounding it? Does it seem consistent with the rest of Brubaker’s work thus far with the character? Does it meet my requirement of at least one M.O.D.O.K. appearance? All these questions and more shall be answered.

The central premise of the story is that the Red Skull and Dr. Zola, using epic amounts of SCIENCE!!!!!, used a hypnotized Sharon Carter to shoot Captain America with a magic gun that would dislodge him from the present and basically freeze him elsewhere in the timeline. Like being stuck in a block of ice, but with more sciency mumbo-jumbo.

This book is so pulpy you would think they printed it on orange juice. Norman Osborne has a portion of the technology needed for the Skull to retrieve Steve from the timeline, and aims to help him so he can have a legitimate Captain America on his team but with the Skull’s consciousness in his body. You know, because he’s evil.

All in all, the book felt like a mixture of classic Avengers storytelling (what with just about every current Avenger; Mighty, Young, New or Dark, appearing in the issue) and Brubaker’s modern neo-thriller sensibilities that he’s used to parlay Captain America into one of the most amazing books on the stands.